About

My name is Jacob, and this is my kitchen. In my kitchen there’s only one rule: make it beautiful, or don’t make it at all.

Join me as I share my passion for food, photography, and entertaining. I will simplify your cooking, inspire you to be fearless in the kitchen, and show you step by step how to recreate beautiful, delicious, homemade meals that anyone would be proud to serve. This is real food, my way.

Here in my kitchen, I focus on traditional heirloom recipes, flavors that we all already know and love, with the volume turned up: stylish comfort food at its best. Cooking should be easy and enjoyable. Simple, fresh ingredients prepared thoughtfully, elevated to something extraordinary. At the end of the day, I want to make food that is uncomplicated, unpretentious, and undeniably good, served in a way that shows my friends and family exactly how much I care about them.

In this hectic, fast paced world that we live in, it isn’t always easy to find the time to enjoy our friends and family. Gone are the days of lingering over earthy, delicious, homemade meals, of setting tables, and entertaining at home. Too often these days we resort to dining out at restaurants as this century’s answer to the dinner party or family gathering. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With some creativity, and a little help from me, there is no reason why you can’t have the food that you love to eat, at home with the people you care about most, without the hassle, or the headache.

I like to think of fine dining and entertaining as being luxurious, part of taking the time to pamper yourself and your loved ones. Instead of waiting for that special occasion which never seems to come around, why not make everyday special? It doesn’t have to be elaborate, or exceptionally fancy. It’s the little things, the little touches, that can make every meal feel like a vacation.

My posts here on Jacob’s Kitchen are my daily meditation, and I hopedaily inspiration to you to invite a little more beauty into your lives, to take more chances in the kitchen, and to give the food that you prepare and the thought that you invest into presenting it the respect that it really deserves. Cooking for our families is a sacred undertaking. What could be more important than doing it well? It’s easy. Follow me, and I’ll show you how.

About Jacob

Ever since I was a little kid, standing on my tippy toes on a stool in my grandmother’s kitchen, I have been enthusiastically cooking and baking. While other children woke up early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons, I jumped out of bed eagerly anticipating my favorite cooking shows. I collect and pour over cookbooks the way that most people read novels, and ever since I can remember I have been elbow deep in a giant mixing bowl, covered in flour, with a huge grin on my face. And still, to this day, nothing brings me quite as much joy as spending an afternoon in the kitchen.

Cooking and baking are very important to me, and a big way that I show affection to the people around me. I take it very seriously. No one will ever know or fully appreciate every little step I take in my making cupcakes, or biscuits, or brownies, or pies, or cookies. How could they? But I perform each step, every kitchen ritual, every flourish and garnish, with love, to make the end product that much more enjoyable to whomever it is that I am cooking for. Like my grandmother, who once used to sing to her bread dough to ensure its success, it is often the heart that is missing in that failed recipe.

Throughout my life I have been involved in many interests and expeditions into unrelated fields, but my need to cook and to entertain my friends and family has been the one constant. And through the many parties, the big and the small events, I have found a new joy in sharing my love of cooking and entertaining with other people.

Over the years I have been immensely inspired by Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, Julia Child and many others, all of whom redefined fine living and food for a generation of home cooks.

I would love to one day be a food stylist, a large scale caterer and event planner, and the owner of a specialty food store; that Jacob’s Kitchen might one day be synonymous with delicious food. Until then, every day spent baking something in my kitchen for someone else, is just another day that I get to do what I most love doing. And for that, I am very thankful.

About the Photographs

I am often asked if I take all of my own pictures, and the answer is yes, I do. I am very new to food photography, but it is quickly becoming a passion of mine. And while I am certainly as amateur a photographer as ever there was, I am learning a lot as I go, and making the rest up along the way. I use a Cannon PC1206 point and shoot camera, and employ a variety of very unsophisticated set ups, in front of a window, on my dining room table. I hope to one day upgrade to a professional camera, but until then I am ever so happy snapping lots of pictures of all of the food that I prepare. I find it immensely enjoyable, and at times even therapeutic. I am extremely grateful for and humbled by all of the positive feedback and the many kind words that I have received in regard to my photography. If you would like to order a print of one of my photos, or if you would like to discuss my taking pictures of your favorite recipes you may contact me at jacobskitchen@gmail.com for rates, I would always love to hear from you.